Back in the Game

For most of November and December I was dealing with knee pain coming from an IT Band issue. Essentially, my glutes and hips are really weak (as is common in a lot of distance runners), and I was starting to feel the effects. I did 6 weeks of 2X/week PT work at Marshbrook Rehab in Somersworth, NH and I’m back in the game!

This week has been a mix of awesome trails, cold road runs, and some time spent running with the pups. After being on the injured list for so long, I’m having a hard time keeping myself under control and building up miles slowly. I feel good so I want to GO GO GO. Luckily, my training plan is written to create a slow build, so that’s what I’m sticking to.

Some highlights from the past week or so:

What should have been a 6 mile trail run in York, ME on New Year’s Day with some friends turned into a 12.7 mile death march because of a little mishap I had with reading a trail map. We were learning new trails, so some wrong turns are bound to happen, I guess. Starting 2017 with an adventure isn’t the worst thing! Luckily my friends are an adventurous, forgiving group of wackos.

I got a chance to run with Tulah and Zorro in Kingman Farm for some nice slow recovery miles on a beautiful 35 degree afternoon. I love mild temperatures in the winter. If it never went below 30, I’d be a winter girl all the way. As usual, Tulah could have run forever and Zorro stopped to pee and lay down on the trail about 10 times per mile.

To round out the week, I got to do a great early morning trail run in Strafford, NH with some of my ultrarunning friends and VT100 pacers. We even had a Wirehaired Vizsla named Zomen join in on our 8 miler through snowmobile trails on a very, very cold day. I love that even on a day with a “real feel” of -7 degrees, there are still four other runners out there ready to tackle some miles. I followed this run up with a huge brunch and then a 5 mile hike. Sometimes you have to spend an entire day outside and eating.